Tou-san
by Cisystematic
Summary: AUFIC: After doing a magic show for his wife's coworkers, Kaito meets a ghost.


"Are you sure this is okay?" I ask, buttoning up my shirt. "I don't know these people…" Aoko's laugh makes me feel even more awkward. She looks at my reflection in the mirror, smiling.

"Do you ever know the people you perform for?" She asks, leaning on the door frame. "It's the same as always. Don't think about it to hard."

I begin putting on my tie. "But these are policemen-policemen that you barely know yourself. They're totally gonna judge me and you based off this."

Today I have a job. A kid's birthday party. No big deal, I've done kid parties before. A simple card trick and multicolored hankies coming out of your sleeve and maybe a few doves to keep the parents interested, but this one feels different. Aoko, who just joined the "cooler part" of the police department, wanted to impress her upper classmen with her "fantastic magic husband" at someone's kid's birthday party. The thing is I haven't done magic in a while. It's not that I don't want to, it's just…

I glance at the picture of my dad on the dresser. Magic hurts to do sometimes.

"Do policemen even like magic?" I ask.

"Course they do." I jump at the voice.

Aoko is also surprised. "You're just waking up, Dad? You need to stop watching those cop shows so late."

I turn around to properly greet my father-in-law. He's visiting to celebrate Aoko getting promoted to Lieutenant. Granted that happened three days ago. "Hello, Nakamori-keibu." I smile.

He nods in my direction, yawning. "You can call me Dad, you know. I've known you since you were born." He pauses. Aoko bites her lip. I guess the look on my face isn't a nice one. Nakamori-keibu has been kinda adamant in me calling him Dad, especially since I've been around him and Aoko for so long. But he knows why I can't. I only have one dad."Plus, I'm retired. It feels weird hearing that title…"

I grin. "I'm trying to make you remember the good ol' days!"

Nakamori-keibu chuckles and walks to the bathroom. Not to be rude, but I can't wait till he leaves. We have a small house and one bathroom. Unlike Aoko, I'm really particular about where everything needs to be. I'm not as bad as Hakuba, but I do like using my cabinets which is where the toothpaste is. Nakamori-keibu keeps the the toothpaste on the counter. He's nice to have around though.

Aoko walks toward me, still biting her lip. "I know it's hard calling him Dad, but can you try calling him something more...nice?" She fixes my tie. "He feels like you're distancing yourself from him especially with the policeman title."

"I know. It's just…" I try to find the right words. "I dunno." Of course there's a part of me that calls him keibu because that's what everyone called him when I was growing up.

"Well how about calling him Ginzo-san, or even Nakamori-chan," she says, letting go of my tie.

I snicker. "I think he'll kill me if I call him "chan"."

"Either way, think on it. Also you need to hurry up. Hakuba-kun's coming and you know how he is with time."

I groan loudly. "Hakuba's coming too? He's gonna make me even more nervous."

"How? We've known him for years!"

"This isn't regular Hakuba. This is _Hakuba-keiji_ Hakuba."

Aoko laughs. "Think of this like high school and you're still playing tricks on him."

I sigh. "Okay." I get my jacket from the bed and lazily put it on. "I hate policemen…" Aoko pinches my arm. I hear a grunt from the bathroom. "Except the ones in this apartment."

Satisfied, Aoko leaves to make her dad some coffee. I go to my closet to get my top hat. In the corner of my eye I see another white suit. Pushing the other clothes out of the way, I stare at my father's magician outfit. When I decided to start following his footsteps, I couldn't bring myself to wear his. I'm probably the same dimensions as him now, but it still wouldn't feel right. I quickly close the door. Depression and nervousness doesn't make a good magic show or a good anything for that matter. After I put my hat on, I take another look in the mirror. It's a gaudy suit, but it does the job. Instead of being the regular bumbling idiot Kuroba Kaito, I'm the mysterious Kaitou Kid. I grin, looking back at my dad's picture. He's not in costume, but he looks brilliant anyway.

"I said I would grow your mustache...but that hasn't happened yet." I say, putting my fingers on my lip to make a fake mustache. "I guess I would look good in one. You said I would, Dad." I smile at the picture. I walk over to it, kiss my fingers, and place them on his chest. "You'll be watching this show, right? You always do." I sigh.

Aoko gasps loudly. "Kaito! We gotta go now if you wanna get the parrot from Jii!"

Ugh...this is going to end terribly. I just know it.

...

"Hakuba's gonna say we're late," I mutter trying not to rattle my dove cages too much.

"No, he's not." Aoko's holding the parrot we got from Jii. Jii is Jii-chan's grandson and my assistant. Jii-chan was my dad's assistant back in the day. Even though he was already too old to help me with little magic shows, he helped me until he was bedridden. Jii is just as good though, he keeps all of my doves and gets any other random animals I feel like having like Par-rot the parrot here.

"There's the house up there." Aoko gestures with her head. It's a nice house. Looks like a stable family sorta place. I've only lived in apartments so seeing a family home is kinda exciting. "Hakuba-kun said he'll be waiting in the backyard."

"Is he going to be in uniform like you?" I ask.

"He should. He told me that everyone would be dressed nice," she answers. For some reason, Aoko insists that her uniform is needed. Even her dad said that it was weird to wear it to a kid's party.

I snort. "Nice doesn't mean your uniform."

"Says the man who dreams about it." Touche.

We finally reach the backyard and Hakuba is looking at his watch as always. I'm surprised he actually started dating a human being instead of his watch. Of course Akako is similarly creepy as Hakuba's time fetish.

"Twenty five seconds late," he greets us.

"I told you," I tell Aoko.

"Hakuba-kun could you hold the parrot?" She asks sweetly, handing him the cage. She reaches up and pinches his ear. "He's already nervous and this is what you say? What happened to hello?"

Hakuba winces. "I'm sorry, but that's the only way I can calm my own nerves. I'm probably more nervous than he is."

I check the back yard. No balloons or anything. I don't even hear any music coming from inside. Where are the kids? I feel even more uneasy. "Why are _you_ nervous Hakuba? I'm the one performing." I turn to him. "Is the party inside? Or does it start later?" Nothing about this house any vibes of a birthday party or children. I feel like I'm in a funeral.

Hakuba looks shocked and faces Aoko. "You didn't tell him!"

"What? Didn't tell me what?" I ask. Instead of answering, Aoko waves to someone behind me.

"Hello Hattori-keiji!" She calls walking past us. I look to see a dark skinned man standing on the porch. Ah this is Hattori. Amongst the few people she works under, Hattori is Aoko's favorite. She's right, his eyebrows are thick...

"Yo, Aoko!" He grins. "You love that uniform too much."

She laughs. "I know! I might marry it!" I would find that hilarious if I wasn't so on edge at the moment.

Hattori waves at me. "You're the magic husband?"

I hope everyone doesn't know me by that title. "Kuroba Kaito, yes." I say, putting down my dove cages.

"Nice to meet you, Kaito!" He laughs. Wow, we're already on a first name basis. "Should I tell everyone else that you're here?"

"Uh-"

"The magic man's here!" He yells inside the house.

Good. Also, I'm the magic man.

I hear Hakuba sigh beside me. "Impetuous as always…" He sets down the parrot cage and gives me a pat on the back. "Do you need help?"

"No, I should be fine. There's nothing really to set up," I say.

"I meant your anxiety. It _has_ been a while, Kaito. I actually hate that Aoko volunteered you to do this," He says.

"Well, a job's a job. Plus, I haven't actually gone out job searching so I'm grateful for this." I bend down to open the dove cages. I can practically hear Hakuba's shocked expression. "Don't scold me today, Sagu. It's a kid's party." I quickly put my doves in their hiding places and open Par-rot's cage. The parrot sits on my shoulder; she's gonna be my opening act.

He sighs. "It's only one kid, Kaito."

I turn to him, slightly confused. "What?"

"There's only one kid," He repeats.

"Look Conan-kun, it's the magician that Aoko-san invited for you," a woman says. She leads a small group of people, most are Aoko's police buddies I guess, toward me and Hakuba. Beside her is a small child, I'm guessing her kid, probably around seven.

There's no other kids. It's just him. What kind of party is this? Why does he look so sad? Also, why is everyone here an adult? Nothing here is making sense. The boy, Conan, quietly sits down in front of me, waiting. There's nothing scarier than seeing a child not behave like one. His mom looks extremely pensive-is everything riding on me making this kid happy?

I'll have to push this aside for now. It's showtime. I grin at my small audience and graciously bow.

"My name is Kaitou Kid. Welcome to my magic show!" With that, I begin my meager act.

Being Kid is much easier than being Kaito, which is weird because I'm both. That's probably the worst thing about having a persona. The character you make up turns out better than you. Kid is awesome-super cool and suave and has everything under control. I barely seem to keep things together. But I should keep a level head while I'm entertaining-want to impressive in case the other policemen want to hire me. I don't have an actual job, after all.

It's hard to be impressive with the kid just staring blankly at me. He doesn't help with alleviating the extremely weird vibes that I'm getting. Usually the kids are clapping and going bonkers when I do some tricks, but this kid is different. I feel like he wants to smile, but chooses not to. Almost like something forced him not to be happy.

When I'm done, all of the adults clap-Aoko's cheers the loudest-and the kid's mother bends down to her son.

"What did you think, Conan-kun?" She asks.

I expected Aoko and Hakuba to tune in on his answer, but not everyone else. Even Hattori, who seems like he doesn't really care about much, was making sure he heard what this kid has to say.

Conan himself knows this apparently and glances at everyone. "It's fine," is all he says.

I inwardly sigh, everyone else looks like they're doing the same thing. Aoko finally looks anxious. She shares a look with Hakuba. They better tell me what's going on. I'm so confused. Conan walks back inside with some of the adults. His mom walks over to me. Saying that she looks tired is an understatement.

"I'm so sorry about Conan. He gets a bit shy sometimes," she says. Her smile is sort of distracted, if that makes sense. She seems like the type to naturally smile all the time, but there's something heavier on her mind. "Thank you so much for coming by. You can stay for a while, if you wish to. There's plenty of food to go around." She gasps. "I'm sorry-I'm Kudo Ran."

I take off my hat and monocle. "Kuroba Kaito, nice to meet you. I don't mind staying for a bit." I have nothing else to do today. I tell Kudo-san that I'll be back after I get my birds situated and change clothes. She leaves me with Aoko and Hakuba. "You should tell me what's happening now," I tell them as I put my birds back. I send a message to Jii to swing by and pick them up.

Aoko plays with her hair. "It _is_ Conan-kun's birthday," she mumbles. As if that was my biggest worry…

"Do you remember the name Kudo Shinichi?" Hakuba asks as he follows me Aoko to the car. I put the birds on the roof and climb in the back seat to change clothes. Aoko and I have a knack for sporadic day trips so there's always extra clothes in our car.

"I remember you talking about him when you joined the force," I say, removing my cape. "He was your Holmes friend." I remember that day clearly. Hakuba came by super excited about meeting someone who liked Holmes as much as he did. The two of them worked on a couple of cases I believe.

Hakuba nods. "He was a fellow detective. Remember that terrible car accident three months ago?"

"Yeah," I say. I barely watch the news since Hakuba tells me everything that's going on. I remember him telling me a drunk driver caused a huge accident with with four cars, one hitting a small store. There were several casualties. I have a terrible feeling about this.

"Kudo Shinichi, Conan's father, was killed in that accident." Hakuba looks at the ground. His eyebrows twitch slightly.

I finished changing, but I don't get out of the car. No wonder his reaction was so strange. He wasn't saying 'it's fine' toward my performance, but to everyone else worrying about him. He was probably saying it to himself more than anything. That's what I did when I was his age. Heh, I still do. I get out of the car, sighing.

"I think it was good of you to come though. Everyone here knows Shinichi in some way and I think you made them feel a bit better." Hakuba smiles. "I know I feel a bit relieved. I forgot how good you are when your tricks aren't against me."

I silently take the compliment. I would say that my appearance was only good for a distraction, but I don't want to make Hakuba feel even worse. I can tell he's barely holding up. He keeps checking the time; sure its a regular habit of his, but its getting too excessive. He goes back to the house, his step a bit slower than usual.

Aoko hugs me. "I'm so sorry Kaito. I know you thought I was using you as a way to show off to the higher ups or whatever," she sniffs loudly. "but I really wanted you to come by because I thought you could help."

I squeeze her, chuckling. "Aoko don't cry. You just got promoted. The uniform's gonna mess up." I lean down to kiss her. "I know you had good intentions, but I wish you could've told me before all this."

"I was afraid you weren't going to do it," she says. "You know how you are sometimes…" she mumbles against my chest.

I raise an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?" It would be a lie to say I'm not a bit ticked off by that. She understands why I don't like doing magic that much anymore.

Aoko notices my reaction. "Don't get mad." She lets go of me and crosses her arms. "I know magic reminds you of your dad, but you shut down sometimes. You turn into a different person. You start bashing the job that you chose to do and push others away."

There are times where I don't particularly like my current situation. Being a magician is fun, but again sometimes doing magic hurts sometimes. I don't mean to push Aoko away when I get in a mood, but she doesn't really understand. Her parents may be divorced, but they're still alive.

Aoko continues, "When I heard about Conan and his dad, I thought you could cheer him up and maybe feel a bit better from it. There are some days that I hate that I decided to join the police, but I remember that I can make happier memories to cover the bad ones. I'm just afraid you're going to shut down and never bounce back." She looks away, biting her lip.

I get what she's saying, and it makes sense. There are some days where I get in too deep with thoughts about my dad; I can barely get out of bed sometimes. "I'll be fine Aoko, because I have you around." I hug her again. "That's why we're married. You need me too, you know."

She nods. Just like I think about my dad, she thinks about her mom often. It's a different situation, but just as hard to deal with."I know." We're quiet for a moment, still holding each other. I hear Jii's car pulling up beside us. I know because of the weird clank the engine makes when it changes gears. I look at Kudo-san's house. It's a shame such a nice place holds such a terrible situation. Almost out of the blue I see a man standing by the fence, staring at the house. Was he always there? Maybe I didn't see him walk up. He turns around and notices me staring. He smiles and waves. I can barely make out his face. He has an odd cowlick...

"We should go back," Aoko says.

We start heading back to Kudo-san's house. I look back to see Jii getting the bird cages from the roof of my car. Good assistant, that one. Aoko becomes her perky self again, skipping beside me.

"I can't wait to introduce you to my other police buddies," she says. "You're going to love them." Haha she's sucha cutie. That's probably the best wife to have, I guess. I don't really call her my wife a lot. Granted, I don't get out the house often. This is probably her way to have some more people to talk to. As we get closer to the house, I realize the man is gone. Where did he go?

In the backyard, Hakuba's with Hattori and a woman. She has the kinda build that would make you second guess her gender, but her face is pretty feminine. Hattori listens closely to her. I guess she's his senior.

"Hey, the magic man's back!" Hattori announces my presence. Please don't let that be my new title... "That magic stuff was amazing, Kaito!"

The woman nods excitedly. "It was super amazing! I want to own the parrot."

"Kaito, this is Masumi-keiji," Aoko introduces. Ah, she told me about her. She's very sporadic with her investigations, kicking stuff down and challenging suspects to fight her. Apparently after she's solved a crime she yells, "case closed".

"So, Kaito-kun, when will I get the parrot?" She asks, leaning close to me. I guess we're also on a first name basis. Very chummy policemen...

"My assistant just took him home…" I say, taking a step back.

Masumi frowns. "That's too bad. I wanted to have a mascot like Saguru." Hakuba rolls his eyes at this. I remember Hakuba telling me about the jokes people said about his pet hawk Watson. "Aoko-chan, make sure to get it for me." She winks at Aoko.

"Roger that." Aoko salutes.

"Did you see someone by the fence a few minutes ago?" I ask Hakuba. He was the closest one, maybe he saw him.

"No, why?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Ooh, is this another magic trick?" Masumi asks excitedly. "Heiji-kun, wouldn't it be fun if Kaito-kun could make murders disappear?"

Hattori laughs. "We would be out of a job." I'm confused on how they're so casual about their jobs...I guess when you've been on one murder case, you've been on all of them? Well, it's the same for magic shows...

"It's not a trick-I really did see someone." I look back at the fence. "He was right there. Aoko, did you see him?"

She shakes her head. "Maybe you were seeing things? The only person I saw was Jii when he pulled up."

Hakuba pats my shoulder. "It's probably nothing, Kaito."

I guess so. It's still odd.

Masumi looks closely at my face. "Speaking of funny things, it's funny how close you resemble him without your costume." She smiles sweetly. "If I didn't know any better I would think you were Shinichi."

"It is weird," Hakuba says.

Hattori is silent.

"The man I saw looked similar to me," I say. "But he had a cowlick-did Shinichi have one?"

"_Oi,_" Hattori grabs my collar and pulls me toward him. "Stop fucking around. You said you were done playing your little show so be quiet. Shinichi has nothing to do with you."

"Heiji!" Masumi glares at him. Her voice is stern, and the sudden change is startling. If I'm right about her being Hakuba sighs.

Hattori lets me go and Aoko latches on to my arm. She awkwardly excuses us and leads me inside. I hear a slapping noise and I look back to see Hattori rubbing the back of his head and Masumi scolding him. From the porch there's the kitchen and there's tons of food on the table. In the center there's a small cake with eight candles on them.

Aoko lets go of me for a moment and lets out a breath. She's not good with any kind of conflict.

"I'm sorry, I already messed up everything," I say.

"It's fine," she whispers. "Hattori-keiji is very protective of Shinichi and his family. He was the main one that didn't want you to come, but with me being his junior he allowed it." She evens her breathing and puts on another smile.

I cover her face with my hand. "You're getting better at smiling when you don't want to."

Aoko chuckles, "I learned from the best." She grabs my hand and leads me to the living room. Kudo-san is sitting on one of the couches with two women-her friends probably. Kudo-san sees me and smiles.

"Ah, Kuroba-san, thank you again. I really enjoyed it," she says, gesturing for us to sit on the couch across from us.

"Yeah, it was spectacular!" The woman to her right says. She fixes her ponytail. "I'm still trying to figure out how you got my card in my shoe."

"This is Kazuha-san. She's in traffic,"Aoko tells me. "She's dating Hattori-keiji." She makes sure not to make her voice tremble when she says his name. Unlike me, Aoko's bad poker face breaks very easily. That's probably a good thing; one of us needs to be more human.

"Haha, I'm not sure if you should say that as a good or bad thing," Kazuha laughs. She does seem more level headed between the two of them."Hey, I've been wondering this since you did the shoe thing with me-can you make cards appear in other places, like bras?" she asks. "That'll be a hit at bachelorette parties."

I choose to laugh at the question instead of actually answering.

"If only I knew about you before I got married. I definitely would have hired you." The woman on Kudo-san's left nods to herself. Speaking of her marriage, that's a gaudy ring. It might as well be a light bulb fixture. Aoko doesn't give me a name, so I guess this must be one of Kudo-san's friends.

"This is my good friend Kyogoku Sonoko," Kudo-san introduces. "You can always invite him to the baby shower, Sonoko," Kudo-san replies.

Sonoko laughs, although it sounds a bit false. "I'll see what Makoto says."

"Children are nice," Aoko says, leaning against me. I get the hint Aoko. I still don't think I'm ready for kids. I don't know if I'll be a good dad.

"You three are ahead of me-I'm still wondering when I'll get married..." Kazuha-san mutters.

"Hattori-keiji is the worst at romance," Aoko fails to whisper this in my ear. "I heard a story about him getting fake flowers because they were cheaper."

"I believe it," I say.

"It's true." Kazuha-san scoffs. "He said its symbolism for our relationship: it'll never die."

"That's actually really clever," I snicker. "Expect that on our next anniversary, Aoko."

She laughs. "Let's have a bonfire so we can say there's heat in our relationship."

"Ugh when you guys do it, it's adorable." Kazuha-san let's out a sigh.

Sonoko nods, looking at us closely. "You two seem to be in the cute stage still. You must've gotten married recently."

Aoko shakes her head, blushing lightly. "We married after high school..."

Sonoko and Kazuha look very surprised, just like everyone else who finds out. Kudo-san, who has been neutral for most of the conversation, giggles. This smile is genuine.

"That's very sweet," she replies, rubbing her wedding band. "Shinichi and I got married very early also. Sometimes you find the right person right away. I hope you two have no troubles."

The conversation dies down. Kazuha and Sonoko glance at Kudo-san occasionally. Aoko begins another conversation.

"Conan-kun is very well behaved, Ran-san. He's the most polite kid I've ever seen."

Sonoko rolls her eyes. "That's because you guys are here. He's a brat." I see she's not ready for kids either… "He makes fun of my headbands."

"You make fun of his glasses, Sonoko." Kazuha laughs. "You're supposed to be the bigger person."

Kudo-san, not really paying attention to the conversation, stares at me. "How strange…" she mumbles.

"What's strange?" Sonoko asks, looking at me. Kazuha glances in my direction. I know they're thinking the same thing.

Aoko tenses.

Kudo-san smiles. "I was thinking that it was strange of Conan not to thank you for coming by." She stands up. "He's upstairs if you want to speak to him before you leave. I'm sure you have other places to be." I give Aoko a pat on the knee before following Kudo-san upstairs to Conan's bedroom. She knocks on the door and calls for him.

Conan slowly opens the door. He sees me and stares at me bewildered.

"Conan-kun, this is the magician. We need to thank him for stopping by," Kudo-san tells him.

He nods, frowning in disappointment. "Thank you," he says and promptly closes the door.

Kudo-san sighs. "I'm sorry. He's a very nice boy, really. Let me get your payment." She leads me to her bedroom. It's right next to Conan's and things are extremely neat. The closet door is closed, and there's a suit hanging on the doorknob. Kudo-san picks up the envelope from her dresser and hands it to me. "Nakamori-kun told me the price, but I gave you extra. I know the circumstances were not ideal."

I see a picture on the dresser. It's a man holding a boy. "Excuse me for asking, but is that your husband in the picture?" I ask.

Ran looks over at the picture and nods. "You can have a closer look if you want." She picks up and hands it to me. "That was taken when Conan-kun started school." She giggles at the memory.

He does look similar to me, except for the cowlick in his hair and eye color. What frightens me the most is not our similarity but me recognizing him. This was the man I saw outside. That doesn't make any sense though. He's been dead for three months, he shouldn't be alive. And out of all the people for him to appear in front of, why me

"It was mean of me to let Conan see you," Kudo-san says. "You have an uncanny similarity to Shinichi when you're not in your suit. I'm sorry for making you feel more uncomfortable."

I set down the picture. "It's fine. My mom would have done the same thing when I was his age. I understand what you two are going through-that's why my wife brought me here." I let out a breath. "My dad passed when I was his age."

She gasps. "I'm sorry to hear that. Scary how common it is, isn't it?" She reaches to touch my shoulder, but decides not to. "Thank you for coming by. Please thank Nakamori-kun also. You're both very nice people." Kudo-san's smile is genuine again, but goes away quickly.

Aoko meets me downstairs and we head back to the backyard. Hakuba is the first to see us and waves goodbye.

"Ehh? You're leaving already? I was about to head in and to talk to you guys." Masumi is back to her peppy attitude.

"We overstayed our welcome," Aoko laughs nervously. "Plus, I'll see you at work tomorrow, Masumi-keiji."

"It's not the same. You're usually with Heiji-kun and we know how possessive he is." Masumi winks at me. My shirt knows this also. "It's nice meeting you Kaito-kun! See you tomorrow, Aoko-chan."

"Be good." Hakuba gives me a pat on the back.

"Same to you," I say.

Hattori doesn't look at me. "See you tomorrow, Aoko." He clenches his teeth and grumbles "nice meeting you, magic man."

As Aoko and I walk back to the car, I hear another slapping noise and Hattori groaning. I feel like that happens a lot… Aoko decides to drive us home. I look out the window, watching the house get smaller in the rear view window.

"Did you really see someone?" She asks.

"Yeah," I answer.

"I wonder why," is all I hear before falling asleep.

...

Nakamori-keibu is busy making dinner when we come back even though it's only two in the afternoon. He cooks very slowly though so this is probably the appropriate time for him to start. Aoko stays with him to relay all that's happened and I head to our bedroom to put my suit away.

"Lousy day," I say to myself as I put the top hat in the closet.

"I wouldn't say that," a voice says.

I flinch at the noise. I don't know whose voice that is. I quickly look around and find no one. Was I just hearing things? First dead people and now voices. I'm finally going insane. I try to calm down. I put my suit on my bed and take another look around the room. What was that voice?

"This is the happiest day for me," the voice continues. I finally place what direction it's coming from: my mirror. My back is to it, and I slowly turn around to see the man I saw before. "You're the first person to see me, after all." He chuckles.

The man in the mirror is Kudo Shinichi.

I feel myself sweat.

"It's been a while, huh?" He grins.

I look around for something to throw. This isn't happening. I'm not seeing dead people. I'm not crazy. I grab my dad's photograph and throw it at the mirror.

I hear Aoko and her dad running toward the bedroom. She gasps at the destruction. When Nakamori-keibu asks what's wrong, I couldn't bring myself to answer.

* * *

Hello everyone! Even though my hands are partially full with my first story Trying to be Normal, I thought why not start another story because hey writing about Kaito is always fun. So for fun I'll talk about where the idea came from. I guess because I've been to a lot of funerals in my young life, I think about characters who have lost someone their cared about. Kaito is one of my favorite characters because he has such a close relationship with his dad. I tied in Conan because I love character parallels. Another major influence was the song Man in the Mirror by the amazing Michael Jackson. It's one of my favorite songs and it's a song that I played a lot when my uncle passed away a couple months ago. Also small PSA for those who follow Trying to be Normal-I did say that I would try my hardest for a double update this month, but I couldn't make it I'm sorry! I got writers block with the plot, and just today I thought of a good way to write the chapter. But if I didn't have writer's block with TTBN, I wouldn't have this story! I can't really say when I'll update this story XDD whenever the chapter gets finished I guess. Thanks for taking the time to read and review! Have a good night! I'm..I'm gonna eat dinner now. XDD


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